"....The world is not a kindly place unless we humans choose to make it so. In this case we did. In the case of that absurd anti-Muslim YouTube video assembled by a fraudster from a religion I hadn’t even heard of until now, we did not...
I talked to the Humanist Association of Toronto last week, a group of intelligent people who were startlingly . . . relaxed. It’s not a quality you see often. We discussed the world over cookies and juice.
They were entirely at ease, which is unusual for any group of humans nowadays. People are poised to take — and give — offence. They are stiff with aggression. They drop things on other people’s heads for religious reasons.
But humanists are a mighty force, albeit so polite, well-spoken and attuned to the hurt feelings of others that they are an unused one. They don’t organize, campaign, harangue or even mildly irritate people. They don’t send out multiple choices forms demanding that their children be taken out of class lest something possibly anti-religious be implied.